The present invention relates to vehicle weather strips, and more specifically, to a lighted body opening weather strip.
Weather strips are used to seal a door opening, such as in a motor vehicle body, and the door of the opening. Typically, weather strips are mounted onto a flange on the door and are made of a sponge rubber type material. Upon closure of the door, the weather strip is partially compressed between the flange of the door and the frame of the vehicle body so as to provide a barrier against ingress of draft, moisture, and outside noise. Certain vehicle body door openings also have a courtesy light source that is activated when the vehicle door is opened, so as to cast light below the opened door and ensure safe ingress and egress from the vehicle.
Because these two features are currently separate, they require extra installation processes, time, and cost, and it would therefore be beneficial to combine them. In addition, because weather strips are mounted onto the door, and because the light source typically does not light a large area, it would be beneficial to combine the two features so that when the door was opened, the light could be cast onto a large ground area to ensure a more safe entry and exit from the vehicle in low light conditions.
It is therefore desired to combine the advantages of a weather strip and a courtesy light source, ensuring safe ingress and egress from a vehicle and providing a barrier against moisture, noise, and draft, as well as eliminating the disadvantages of longer assembly time and higher part cost.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighted vehicle body opening weather strip that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is a feature of the present invention that the lighted vehicle body opening weather strip incorporates a light source extrusion combined with an elastomeric weather strip extrusion.
The present invention advantageously provides a lighted vehicle body opening weather strip including a longitudinally extending gripping portion having an outside wall, a co-extending tubular sealing portion disposed on the outside wall of the gripping portion, a carrier embedded within the gripping portion, a light source extrusion carried by the gripping portion, and an extrusion solid surrounding the light source extrusion.